U.S. patent application number 10/414350 was filed with the patent office on 2004-10-21 for methods, systems and computer program products for multidimensional movement in a display window.
Invention is credited to Bartek, Velda, Cox, Patrick, Spinks, Richard.
Application Number | 20040207648 10/414350 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 33158681 |
Filed Date | 2004-10-21 |
United States Patent
Application |
20040207648 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Cox, Patrick ; et
al. |
October 21, 2004 |
Methods, systems and computer program products for multidimensional
movement in a display window
Abstract
Scrolling data in a display window having peripheral controls on
a user interface of a data processing system includes a
two-dimensional scrolling control that is integrated as part of the
peripheral controls. The two-dimensional scrolling control includes
at least three directional components. Each directional component
is associated with a direction on the display window, and at least
one of the directions corresponds to a change in both of the two
dimensions. User input is accepted from a user. The user input
includes a selected directional component. The data in the display
window is scrolled in the direction associated with the selected
directional component.
Inventors: |
Cox, Patrick; (Raleigh,
NC) ; Bartek, Velda; (Apex, NC) ; Spinks,
Richard; (Chapel Hill, NC) |
Correspondence
Address: |
MYERS BIGEL SIBLEY & SAJOVEC
PO BOX 37428
RALEIGH
NC
27627
US
|
Family ID: |
33158681 |
Appl. No.: |
10/414350 |
Filed: |
April 15, 2003 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
345/684 ;
345/678; 345/680; 715/786 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 3/0485
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
345/684 ;
345/678; 345/680; 345/786 |
International
Class: |
G09G 005/00 |
Claims
That which is claimed:
1. A method of scrolling data in a display window having peripheral
controls on a user interface of a data processing system,
comprising: providing a two-dimensional scrolling control
integrated as part of the peripheral controls, the two-dimensional
scrolling control comprising at least three directional components,
each directional component associated with a direction on the
display window, at least one of the directions corresponding to a
change in both of the two dimensions; accepting user input from a
user, the user input comprising a selected directional component;
and scrolling the data in the display window in the direction
associated with the selected directional component.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the two-dimensional scrolling
control is in a fixed location.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the peripheral controls comprise
a first control portion extending along a horizontal periphery of
the display window and a second control portion extending along a
vertical periphery of the display window, and wherein providing a
two-dimensional scrolling control further comprises providing a
two-dimensional scrolling control at a common intersection between
the first control portion and the second control portion.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first control portion
comprises a horizontal scroll bar and the second control portion
comprises a vertical scroll bar.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the two-dimensional scrolling
control further comprises a centering icon, the method further
comprising scrolling the data in the display window to a center of
the display window if the user input comprises selection of the
centering icon.
6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: providing feedback to
the user interface indicating that a vertical and/or horizontal
limit of the data in the display window has been reached.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the feedback comprises audio
feedback.
8. The method of claim 6, wherein the feedback comprises display
feedback.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the two-dimensional scrolling
control comprises at least eight directional components.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the two-dimensional scrolling
control comprises a first and a second directional component for a
single direction, the first directional component and the second
directional component corresponding to different scrolling
distances.
11. A computer program product for scrolling data in a display
window having peripheral controls on a user interface of a data
processing system, comprising: a computer readable medium having
computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer
readable program code comprising: computer readable program code
which provides a two-dimensional scrolling control integrated as
part of the peripheral controls, the two-dimensional scrolling
control comprising at least three directional components, each
directional component associated with a direction on the display
window, at least one of the directions corresponding to a change in
both of the two dimensions; computer readable program code which
accepts user input from a user, the user input comprising a
selected directional component; and computer readable program code
which scrolls the data in the display window in the direction
associated with the selected directional component.
12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the
peripheral controls comprise a first control portion extending
along a horizontal periphery of the display window and a second
control portion extending along a vertical periphery of the display
window, the two-dimensional scrolling control being at a common
intersection between the first control portion and the second
control portion.
13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the first
control portion comprises a horizontal scroll bar and the second
control portion comprises a vertical scroll bar.
14. A system for scrolling data in a display window having
peripheral controls on a user interface of a data processing
system, comprising: means for providing a two-dimensional scrolling
control integrated as part of the peripheral controls, the
two-dimensional scrolling control comprising at least three
directional components, each directional component associated with
a direction on the display window, at least one of the directions
corresponding to a change in both of the two dimensions; means for
accepting user input from a user, the user input comprising a
selected directional component; and means for scrolling the data in
the display windo in the direction associated with the selected
directional component.
15. The system of claim 14, wherein the peripheral controls
comprise a first control portion extending along a horizontal
periphery of the display window and a second control portion
extending along a vertical periphery of the display window, the
two-dimensional scrolling control being at a common intersection
between the first control portion and the second control
portion.
16. The system of claim 15, wherein the first control portion
comprises a horizontal scroll bar and the second control portion
comprises a vertical scroll bar.
17. A two-dimensional scrolling control for controlling a display
window having peripheral controls that displays data on a data
processing system, the scrolling control comprising: at least three
directional components, each directional component associated with
a direction on the display window, at least one of the directions
corresponding to a change in both of the two dimensions; wherein
the directional components are configured such that user input from
a user to select a directional component causes scrolling of the
data in the display window in the direction associated with the
selected directional component; and wherein the two-dimensional
scrolling control is integrated as part of the peripheral
controls.
18. The two-dimensional scrolling control of claim 17, wherein the
peripheral controls comprise a first control portion extending
along a horizontal periphery of the display window and a second
control portion extending along a vertical periphery of the display
window, the two-dimensional scrolling control being at a common
intersection between the first control portion and the second
control portion.
19. The two-dimensional scrolling control of claim 18, wherein the
first control portion comprises a horizontal scroll bar and the
second control portion comprises a vertical scroll bar.
20. The two-dimensional scrolling control of claim 17, wherein the
directional components are configured to indicate potential
directions of movement of data in the display window.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates to user interfaces of a data
processing system and, more particularly, to manipulating a display
window having peripheral controls on a user interface of a data
processing system.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Data processing systems such as a personal computer, laptop
computer, pervasive computing device such as a personal data
assistant (PDA), smartphone, or other mobile terminal typically
display data or content in a display window of a user interface.
The content for display may be larger than the display window.
Various controls have been used to manipulate the content in the
display window so that the user can control what portion of the
data is displayed.
[0003] Display windows typically have controls that are peripheral
to the display window so that the content can be manipulated
without interfering with the display window. For example,
peripheral controls on a display window may include scroll bars
that extend along the horizontal and vertical periphery of the
display window. A scrolling icon within the scroll bar can be
selected and moved by controls such as a mouse that can manipulate
a cursor to select the scrolling icon or the icon can be selected
by a user touching the display window on a touch sensitive screen.
Scroll bars may also allow a user to select a region above or below
the scrolling icon to move the content in the display in a vertical
or horizontal direction. This can allow "page" by "page" scrolling
such that the content moves in increments that are about the area
of the page in one direction. Other examples of controls that may
be peripheral to the display window include control icons that
perform some function when selected by the user. Functions
performed by control icons can include printing or saving a
document, opening a new document, formatting text, reloading or
refreshing the content, loading selected content for viewing and
the like.
[0004] Data processing systems have been reduced in size so that,
in some instances, systems can be held in a single hand such as in
the case of PDAs and smartphones. The display area in such devices
may be relatively small, and the content for display may be
significantly larger than the display area. Users may be required
to scroll both horizontally and vertically to locate and view
information.
[0005] Scrolling using conventional scroll bars in such an
environment can require the user to perform separate actions to
manipulate both the horizontal and the vertical scroll bars. For
example, when the content is displayed within a display area on a
handheld device, instead of seeing the entire page or the desired
information in the display area, the user typically scrolls to
navigate line by line or "page" by "page" along one axis. Then, the
user can repeat those actions to move along the other axis in order
to locate the desired content. Similar problems may be experienced
even with relatively large display windows particularly when the
content is large, such as in a spreadsheet.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0006] According to embodiments of the present invention, methods
of scrolling data in a display window having peripheral controls on
a user interface of a data processing system are provided. A
two-dimensional scrolling control is integrated as part of the
peripheral controls. The two-dimensional scrolling control includes
at least three directional components. Each directional component
is associated with a direction on the display window, and at least
one of the directions corresponds to a change in both of the two
dimensions. User input is accepted from a user. The user input
includes a selected directional component. The data in the display
window is scrolled in the direction associated with the selected
directional component.
[0007] In further embodiments according to the present invention, a
two-dimensional scrolling control for controlling a display window
having peripheral controls that displays data on a data processing
system is provided. The scrolling control includes at least three
directional components. Each directional component is associated
with a direction on the display window, and at least one of the
directions corresponds to a change in both of the two dimensions.
The directional components are configured to accept user input from
a user to select a directional component. The data in the display
window is scrolled in the direction associated with the selected
directional component. The two-dimensional scrolling control is
integrated as part of the peripheral controls.
[0008] While the invention has been described above primarily with
respect to the method and scrolling control aspects of the
invention, both systems and/or computer program products are also
provided.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0009] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system according to
embodiments of the present invention;
[0010] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a data processing system
according to embodiments of the present invention;
[0011] FIG. 3 is a more detailed block diagram of data processing
systems according to embodiments of the present invention;
[0012] FIG. 4A is a flowchart illustrating operations of a
two-dimensional scrolling control according to embodiments of the
present invention;
[0013] FIG. 4B is a flowchart illustrating operations of a
two-dimensional scrolling control according to further embodiments
of the present invention;
[0014] FIG. 5 is a screen shot illustrating data that can be
displayed in a data processing system according to embodiments of
the present invention;
[0015] FIG. 6 is a screen shot illustrating a portion of the data
in FIG. 5 in a display window having peripheral controls and a
two-dimensional scrolling control according to embodiments of the
present invention;
[0016] FIG. 7 is a screen shot illustrating the display window of
FIG. 6 after user input is received by the two-dimensional
scrolling control according to embodiments of the present
invention;
[0017] FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating a two-dimensional
scrolling control according to embodiments of the present
invention;
[0018] FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating a two-dimensional
scrolling control having eight directional components according to
embodiments of the present invention; and
[0019] FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating a
two-dimensional scrolling control having two directional components
corresponding to one direction according to embodiments of the
present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0020] The present invention now will be described more fully
hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which
preferred embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention
may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be
construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather,
these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be
thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the
invention to those skilled in the art.
[0021] As will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, the
present invention may be embodied as a method, data processing
system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present
invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an
entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software
and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present invention may take
the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable storage
medium having computer-usable program code means embodied in the
medium. Any suitable computer readable medium may be utilized
including hard disks, CD-ROMS, optical storage devices, or magnetic
storage devices.
[0022] Computer program code for carrying out operations of the
present invention may be written in an object oriented programming
language such as Java@, Smalltalk or C++. However, the computer
program code for carrying out operations of the present invention
may also be written in conventional procedural programming
languages, such as the "C" programming language. The program code
may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's
computer, as a standalone software package, partly on the user's
computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote
computer. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be
connected to the user's computer through a local area network (LAN)
or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an
external computer (for example, through the Internet using an
Internet Service Provider).
[0023] The present invention is described below with reference to
flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus
(systems) and computer program products according to an embodiment
of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the
flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of
blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be
implemented by computer program instructions. These computer
program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general
purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable
data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the
instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or
other programmable implementing the functions specified in the
flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
[0024] These computer program instructions may also be stored in a
computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other
programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular
manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable
memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction
means which implement the function specified in the flowchart
and/or block diagram block or blocks.
[0025] The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a
computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a
series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or
other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented
process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or
other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the
functions specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or
blocks.
[0026] As is described in more detail below, the present invention
provides for the manipulation of data in a display window on a user
interface of a data processing system. A two-dimensional scrolling
control can be provided so that data can be scrolled in the display
window simultaneously in both of the two dimensions responsive to
user input.
[0027] Various embodiments of the present invention will now be
described with reference to FIGS. 1 through 9. FIG. 1 illustrates a
network environment in which embodiments of the present invention
may be utilized. As will be appreciated by those of skill in the
art, however, the operations of embodiments of the present
invention may be carried out on a single processing system with or
without access to a network such as an intranet or the Internet. As
seen in FIG. 1, a client data processing system 12, such as a
personal computer, laptop computer, pervasive computing device such
as a personal data assistant (PDA), smartphone, or other mobile
terminal, may utilize a web browser 10 or other application or
program to communicate over network 14 to another data processing
system which may act as a server 16. The web browser 10 can
communicate with a display window 26 to display data. The network
14 may be an intranet or the Internet or other networks known to
those of skill in the art.
[0028] As is further illustrated in FIG. 1, the server 16 can be in
communication with data sources 30A, 30B, and 30C. The data sources
30A, 30B, and 30C can be computer servers, processing systems, or
other networks that can send data to the client data processing
system 12 over the network 14. The web browser 10 can display the
data in the display window 26, which can be viewed and manipulated
by the user.
[0029] Referring now to FIG. 2, exemplary embodiments of a data
processing system 230 in accordance with embodiments of the present
invention typically includes input device(s) 232 such as a keyboard
or keypad, touch sensitive screen, light sensitive screen, or
mouse, a display 234, and a memory 236 that communicate with a
processor 238. The data processing system 230 may further include a
speaker 244, and an I/O data port(s) 246 that also communicates
with the processor 238. The I/O data port 246 can be used to
transfer information between the data processing system 230 and
another computer system or a network (e.g., the Internet). These
components may be conventional components such as those used in
many conventional data processing systems which may be configured
to operate as described herein. Furthermore, as will be appreciated
by those of skill in the art, the data processing system 230 may be
configured as the client 12 or the server 16.
[0030] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of embodiments of data processing
systems that illustrates systems, methods, and computer program
products in accordance with the present invention. The processor
238 communicates with the memory 236 via an address/data bus 248.
The processor 238 can be any commercially available or custom
microprocessor. The memory 236 is representative of the overall
hierarchy of memory devices containing the software and data used
to implement the functionality of the data processing system 230.
The memory 236 can include, but is not limited to, the following
types of devices: cache, ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory,
SRAM, and DRAM.
[0031] As shown in FIG. 3, the memory 236 may include several
categories of software and data used in the data processing system
230: the operating system 252; the application programs 254; the
input/output (I/O) device drivers 258; and the data 256. As will be
appreciated by those of skill in the art, the operating system 252
may be any operating system suitable for use with a data processing
system, such as OS/2, AIX or System390 from International Business
Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y., Windows95, Windows98,
Windows2000, or WindowsXP from Microsoft Corporation, Redmond,
Wash., Unix or Linux. The I/O device drivers 258 typically include
software routines accessed through the operating system 252 by the
application program 254 to communicate with devices such as the
input devices 232, the display 234, the speaker 244, the I/O data
port(s) 246, and certain components of the memory 236. The display
234 includes a user interface 262 that displays data 256 with a
display window 264. The application programs 254 are illustrative
of the programs that implement the various features of the data
processing system 230 and preferably include at least one
application which provides the data scrolling aspects of
embodiments of the present invention. Finally, the data 256
represents the static and dynamic data used by the application
programs 254, the operating system 252, the I/O device drivers 258,
and other software programs that may reside in the memory 236. The
data 256 can also be displayed in the display window 264.
[0032] As is further seen in FIG. 3, the application programs 254
preferably include display window control module 260. The display
window control module 260 preferably carries out operations as
described herein for providing a two-dimensional scrolling control.
Thus, the display window control module 260 may provide operations
of one or more of the display window control functions to the
display window 264.
[0033] While the present invention is illustrated, for example,
with reference to a display window control module 260, as will be
appreciated by those of skill in the art, the display window
control module 260 may also be incorporated into other components,
such as the operating system 252. Thus, the present invention
should not be construed as limited to the configuration of FIG. 3
but is intended to encompass any configuration capable of carrying
out the operations described herein.
[0034] Embodiments of the present invention will now be described
in more detail with reference to FIG. 4A, which is a flowchart
illustration of operations carried out by the display window
control module 260. As seen in FIG. 4A, the display window control
module 260 may provide a two-dimensional scrolling control having
directional components (block 300). Each of the directional
components corresponds to a direction in the display window 264. At
least one of the directional components can correspond to a change
in both of the two dimensions. For example, if the display window
264 has a vertical and horizontal dimension, at least one of the
directional components corresponds to movement in both the vertical
and horizontal directions, e.g., a diagonal direction with respect
to a horizontal and vertical direction on the display window
264.
[0035] The display window 264 may have peripheral controls that can
provide operations such as manipulating the data in the display
window 264. As used herein, a "peripheral control" is a control
icon that is situated adjacent to the periphery of the display
window 264. The two-dimensional scrolling control may be integrated
as part of the peripheral controls. For example, the peripheral
controls can include a control portion extending along a horizontal
periphery of the display window and another control portion
extending along a vertical periphery of the display window. The
two-dimensional scrolling control may be at a common intersection
between the two control portions.
[0036] Referring to FIG. 4A, the data processing system accepts
user input (Block 302). The user input can be a selection of one of
the directional components. The directional component may be
selected using various techniques such as a cursor selection made
with a mouse, a keyboard selection, a physical selection on a
touch-sensitive screen, activation of a light sensitive screen,
laser activation, and other techniques known to those of skill in
the art. If the user input is a selection of a directional
component (Block 304), the data in the display window is scrolled
in the direction of the user selection (Block 308). If the user
does not select a directional component (Block 304), then the data
in the display window is not changed (Block 306).
[0037] FIG. 4B illustrates operations according to further
embodiments of the present invention where feedback is provided
when scroll limits are reached. A two-dimensional scrolling control
having directional components is provided (Block 500). User input
can be accepted (Block 502), and if the user input is a directional
component (Block 504), the data is scrolled in the direction of the
user selection (Block 508). If there is data in the direction of
the user selection (Block 510), then the processor loops back to
accept user input (Block 502). If there is no additional data in
the direction of the user selection (Block 510), feedback can be
provided for the selected data (Block 512). The feedback can be
auditory, e.g., a sound through a speaker, or visual, e.g., the
respective directional component changes color and/or disappears
from the screen. If there is no data in the direction of the user
selection at the time that the user makes the selection, it may not
be possible to scroll data in the direction of the user selection.
That is, Block 508 may be omitted if there is no data in the
selected direction. If the user does not select a directional
component (Block 504), then the data in the display window is not
changed (Block 506).
[0038] FIG. 5 illustrates a display window 350 that displays data
352. A relatively small display window may not be capable of
displaying the entire content of the data 352. An example of such a
display window is shown in FIGS. 6 and 7.
[0039] The display window 350' in FIGS. 6 and 7 includes a display
area 364 that displays data 352A, 352B. The displayed data 352A,
352B is a portion of the data 352 shown in FIG. 5. The display area
364 has peripheral controls 354, 358, and 366. The peripheral
controls 366 at the top of the display window 350' include
selections such as a file selection 366A for controlling the file,
a "zooming" selection 366B for enlarging the resolution of the data
352A, 352B, a "tools" selection 366C for selecting miscellaneous
controls for manipulating the displayed data, and a help selection
366D for selecting an instructional menu commonly referred to as a
"help" menu.
[0040] The peripheral controls 354 extend along the vertical
periphery of the display area 364, and the peripheral controls 358
extend along the horizontal periphery of the display area 364. The
horizontal and vertical peripheral controls 354, 358 shown are
examples of scroll bars. That is, when the scroll icons 356, 360
are selected by a user, the data 352A, 352B scrolls in the
direction selected by the user. For example, if the user moves the
horizontal scroll icon 360 to the right, the data 352A, 352B shown
in the display window would shift to the right.
[0041] A two-dimensional scrolling control 362 is situated at a
common intersection between the horizontal and vertical peripheral
controls 354, 358. An expanded view of the two-dimensional
scrolling control 362 is shown in FIG. 8. The scrolling control 362
includes four directional components 374, 376, 378, and 380. The
upper-right directional component 374 corresponds to a direction
pointing towards the upper-right hand corner of the display area
364, the lower-right directional component 376 corresponds to a
direction pointing towards the lower-right hand corner of the
display area 364, and so forth. The data 352A, 352B in FIGS. 6 and
7 illustrates scrolling motion responsive to a user selection of
the lower-right directional component 376. That is, the data 352A
displayed in FIG. 6 illustrates the display area 364 before the
user selects the lower-right directional component 376. The data
352B displayed in FIG. 7 illustrates the display area 364 after the
user selects the lower-right directional component 376. Responsive
to the user selection, the data is scrolled down and to the right,
that is, along a diagonal towards the lower-right hand corner of
the display area 364.
[0042] The distance that the data is scrolled may be a preset
distance ranging from a pixel to a display area 364 or larger. The
distance that the data is scrolled by selecting one of the
directional components 374, 376, 378, and 380 can be a
pre-programmed feature of the scrolling control 362 or it can be an
option that, can be controlled by the user. For example, the user
could control the properties of the directional components 374,
376, 378, and 380 by selecting the distance that the data is
scrolled. In the example shown by FIGS. 6 and 7, the data 352A,
352B is scrolled by an area equal to about the size of the display
area 364, or a "page." As a result, the lower-right hand corner of
the data 352A in FIG. 6 abuts the upper-right hand corner of the
data 352B in FIG. 7.
[0043] The two-dimensional scrolling control 362 of FIG. 8 also has
a centering icon 372. If the user selects the centering icon, the
data 352A, 352B in the display area 364 scrolls or moves abruptly
to the center of the display area 364. The centering icon 372 can
provide a reference point for the user. For example, if the user is
uncertain as to where the data 352A, 352B is located in the larger
area of data 352 (FIG. 5), the user can select the centering icon
372 to find the center of the data 352.
[0044] In some embodiments, feedback is provided to the user
interface that indicates that a vertical or horizontal limit of the
data 352 has been reached. For example, if the data 352 is being
displayed such that the display area 364 is at a horizontal limit
that has been reached and the data 352 cannot be scrolled further
in one direction, feedback to the user interface may indicate that
the limit has been reached. The feedback can be audio, e.g., a
noise through a speaker, or visual feedback on the display 350,
e.g., a change of color of the directional component 374, 376, 378,
and 380. Operations to provide such feedback according to
particular embodiments are illustrated in FIG. 4B as described
above.
[0045] The two-dimensional scrolling control can have various
numbers of directional components. For example, as shown in FIG. 9,
the two-dimensional scrolling control 400 can have eight
directional components 402, 404, 406, 408, 410, 412, 414, and 416.
Directional components 402, 406, 410, and 414 can be the same as
directional components 374, 376, 378, and 380 in FIG. 8, that is,
corresponding to the respective diagonals in a display area.
Directional components 404, 408, 412 and 416 can correspond to
scrolling motion directed right, down, left, and up,
respectively.
[0046] FIG. 10 illustrates embodiments of the present invention
having more than one directional component for a single direction.
As illustrated, the two-dimensional scrolling control 450 can
include four pairs of diagonal directional components 454 and 454A,
456 and 456A, 458 and 458A, and 460 and 460A. Each component in a
diagonal pair can correspond to a scrolling distance, for example,
so that one directional component in the pair moves a longer
distance than the other directional component in the pair. For
example, directional components 454, 456, 458, and 460 could be
configured to scroll the display area by one display page of
distance in the respective diagonal directions, and directional
components 454A, 456A, 458A, and 460A could be configured to scroll
the display area by roughly the size of a character to as small as
a pixel length of distance. Alternatively, the scrolling components
454, 456, 458, and 460 could be configured to scroll in a diagonal
direction to the limit of the data in the display area, and
scrolling components 454A, 456A, 458A, and 460A could scroll the
displayed data on display page of distance.
[0047] While the present invention has been described with
reference to a client-server architecture, as will be appreciated
by those of skill in the art, the present invention may be provided
as a stand-alone application.
[0048] In the drawings and specification, there have been disclosed
typical preferred embodiments of the invention and, although
specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and
descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, the
scope of the invention being set forth in the following claims.
* * * * *